


Cheap Charade

by femmenoire



Category: Twisted (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-27
Updated: 2013-06-27
Packaged: 2017-12-16 07:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/859607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/femmenoire/pseuds/femmenoire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lacey is haunted by memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cheap Charade

She would only do this with her bedroom door closed, locked and her desk chair slightly blocking it. 

She didn’t need all of these precautions since her mother, while overbearing at the best of times, only snooped when Lacey was at school. But it made her feel better. 

She let the sun bounce off of the charm. 

It was a present from Danny when they were nine: a dragonfly in amber. Apparently he’d gone to every craft shop in Tucson to find it for her. He hadn’t been entirely sure what he was looking for, but when he saw it, he knew. Or at least that’s what he’d told Lacey. He’d whispered it to her while Jo was off catching bugs for the miniature terrarium he’d brought her back. 

“I knew you had to have this. I mean... I knew I had to get this for you,” he’d whispered, his skin slightly flushed, his eyes boring into hers. 

She’d smiled and blushed but looked away as she mumbled “thank you.” 

She wasn’t sure what to do with it at first, but she liked having it close to her. It was almost like having Danny close to her. So she’d put it in her pencil case for a few weeks and then she’d attached it to her backpack zipper. 

Danny liked seeing it everyday, even though he never said it. He’d smiled the first time he’d seen it swinging from her bag at the bus stop. And every now and then he used to reach out and rub it, almost like a lucky charm. Sometimes Lacey would even make sure that he saw it, enjoying watching his fingers glide across the always cool amber, the beautiful wings of the insect inside reflecting off the rays of sun. 

But after Danny killed his aunt, or maybe it was after the trial when she’d found out that her best friend was going to be sent away, Lacey had broken two short nails ripping the charm from her backpack zipper. 

She’d run all the way to their fort, her lungs burning, tears stinging her eyes. When the charm was free she’d run out of their shelter, intending to throw it as far into the thicket as she could. But her raised hand had dropped useless to her side and she’d known she couldn’t do it. 

Throwing away their charm wouldn’t change what was happening. And it wouldn’t erase Danny from her memory. In fact, if she threw this away, she thought, it would break her heart even more. 

She hated Danny more than she could express for killing his aunt Tara and leaving her. But even more than that she felt incomplete already, knowing that she wouldn’t see him tomorrow or the day after or probably any day after that. 

Her face still streaked with tears, she’d shoved her dragonfly into the bottom of her bag and walked slowly home. Once shut in her room, her parents’s arguing drifting up the stairs, she’d shoved the charm as far back in her desk drawer as it would go. 

For weeks she could feel its weight on her heart, knowing it was there and what it meant, but she followed her therapist’s advice, practiced her breathing techniques and willed her anger to subside. 

And eventually she forgot it was there; every now and then forgetting that Danny had been real. 

But then one day Regina discovered it. 

Regina was known to scavenge. Lacey used to call her a bloodhound; let her loose and she’d find whatever random item Lacey had lost in her mother’s latest organizing binge. 

The only thing was that Lacey had definitely not been looking for this. 

“Oooooh, pretty-pretty,” Regina said in that high-pitched squeal that was her trademark. 

Lacey was dutifully trying to work through their math homework, while Regina rummaged in Lacey’s desk for that pack of cigarettes they’d bought a few months before. They’d both coughed horribly and Lacey even lost her voice for two days, but neither of them had wanted to throw away the evidence of their pre-teen rebellion, so Lacey kept them. And now Regina was searching for them, partially because she hated math and partially because she was currently obsessed with French models. “And they all smoke,” she’d said. “That’s how they stay so skinny.” 

“Put it back,” Lacey had screamed when she saw Regina holding Danny’s- her charm. It was like her past and present were colliding. 

She dug up the memory of those breathing techniques, closing her eyes to focus all of her energy on slowing her racing heart. 

Regina was not known for her tact or gentleness but she’d always been just a bit different with Lacey. “Calm down, Lacey. I’m putting the... bug- what the hell is this? Anyway, I’m putting this thing down.”

Lacey’s breath slowed. “I... It’s nothing,” she croaked out, unconvincingly. 

“Where’d you get it,” Regina said, her voice softer than normal. 

This was the moment Lacey had been dreading. It wasn’t as if everyone didn’t know that she’d been one of the child-murderer’s best friends, it’s just that she never talked about it. And Regina was kind enough not to bring it up. 

But Lacey wasn’t stupid and she knew that one day she’d be confronted with this exact situation. 

She took a few more calming breaths before saying, only a little bit slower than normal, “It was a gift from an old friend.”

If Regina realized that that old friend was Danny she hid it well. Instead of an immediate response she picked the charm up carefully, studying the fragile insect within, turning the orb over in her hand. “It’s pretty.”

Lacey released some of the air she’d been holding in her lungs. “It’s okay. Kinda reminds me of Jurassic Park,” she said, forcing a laugh that sounded hollow even to her own ears. 

Regina looked up abruptly, piercing Lacey with an uncharacteristically serious stare. “You should keep it close.” 

Lacey exhaled sharply, feeling like Regina had struck her in the gut. But just as quickly Regina changed the subject. They’d finished their math homework slowly over the next hour and then Regina had gone home.

It was only after another awkward dinner with just her mother, that had ended with Lacey storming upstairs and slamming the door, that she noticed her charm still sitting, forgotten on her desk. 

_“I knew you had to have this.”_

She could hear his voice in her head like it was yesterday. 

***

Lacey had slept horribly. 

Her dreams were confused with nine-year-old Danny, still-alive Regina, present Danny and her dragonfly, somehow free of it’s amber prison. 

It almost certainly wasn’t bright enough for the sunglasses, but that was the benefit of being her, after school all the freshmen girls would be running to the mall for a new pair of sunglasses hoping to emulate her style. Of course they wouldn’t succeed but Lacey would be kind enough to smile at their attempts. 

She was so tired she hadn’t noticed him standing near her locker. When she finally saw him, she realized that he was close enough that she knew he was waiting for her, but not close enough that Archie would freak out. 

That was Danny, carefully provocative, Lacey thought to herself. 

She had to put her code into her lock twice, she was so flustered at him being so close. If he noticed, he didn’t mention it. 

Instead, once she’d taken a few deep breaths, checked her makeup in the mirror stuck to her locker door and grabbed her science textbook, he came closer.

The door was blocking his face from her, and vice versa, but she was happy about that, even if it didn’t stop her face from flushing when she heard his voice. 

“I....” His pause was so long she thought maybe he wouldn’t finish, but he did. “I miss you.”

He said it so low it was unlikely anyone else had heard over the racket of the hallways before first period. Lacey’s throat closed, but she wasn’t sure what she’d have said had it not. 

I miss you too?

Why?

I hate you.

Why? 

How did we get here? 

Why? 

Instead she said nothing. She felt horrible, but really, what was there to say? What could either of them say that would fix the past five years? Absolutely nothing. So why bother, Lacey thought to herself. 

Just when she was wondering how long he’d stand there, their faces hidden by her locker door, his hand reached out, finding the small dragonfly in amber. Her pupils dilated as she struggled to remember when she’d hooked the charm to her backpack zipper. 

Danny’s fingers glided along the smooth surface and Lacey felt a shiver up her spine. 

It had never been like this before, but maybe it had and she was just too immature to realize it. 

He caressed her dragonfly for a few more seconds and whispered, so softly she wondered if he hadn’t meant for even her to hear him, “I knew I had to give this to you.”

Lacey’s breath caught in her throat, while her back straightened almost painfully. But just like that he’d released the charm and turned to walk away. 

She watched his back as he moved ever farther from her, but she wouldn’t cry again, not over Danny Desai.

She’d shed enough tears for him. For them.


End file.
